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on record Nonika Singh talks to MK Raina, Theatre person and filmmaker An artiste is an island unto himself, may be in another time and another world. However, for MK Raina, a celebrated theatre person and filmmaker, being an artiste is no different from being a sensitive human or a fiery cultural crusader. Both passion for arts and the conviction that it can change the world, drives his plays, films and television ventures.
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Pleasant winds of change in J&K Nonika Singh talks to MK Raina, Theatre person and filmmaker
You have been active in the cultural resurrection of your home state. Have things changed for the better in J&K? Renaissance may be far away but there has been a visible organic change. Everything looks normal, what with cultural bodies organising festivals, workshops happening and many more cultural activities becoming the order of the day in a state where music ceased to be heard. Recently you organised a festival Revisiting Bhand Pather. How important is it to incorporate folk forms in the modern idiom of theatre? Innovation holds the key in all performing arts. Be it classical music or other arts, in the Indian system there is a form within a structure and amid that there are free spaces in which improvisation is possible. Without experimentation arts would be dead. Thus, doing a King Lear in Bhand Pather is another way of keeping the great tradition alive. You suffered personally from the Kashmir turmoil, but your faith in the secular fabric has not been shaken. I believe secularism is the only way forward for the Indian democracy. In the celebration of our cultural and religious diversity lies the nation's strength. Let a thousand flowers bloom, only then can we prosper individually. Why should artistes raise their voice? Why not? How else do you prove that you exist and are not just another dead piece of wood? I have nothing against those who don't come out in the open. We all have our own individual ways of negotiating with the truth. Literature is a common leitmotif of many of your works. What are the challenges in transforming a literary piece into a play or a film? When you translate the great words of great minds into an audio-visual experience, the excitement of finding meanings and subtexts within the written narrative is unparalleled. In my play Andha Yug, I spent days and nights to arrive at what exactly the writer wanted to convey in a simple one-liner. You have been an angry man. What angers you now? Not angry really, only concerned. I am perturbed by where our economy is going, how there is a race to control the Capital, how there is hue and cry over subsidy to the poor, but none when thousands of crores are doled out to the industry. In a country where industrialists control the media and can be seen in Parliament, what else can you expect? What can arts or artistes do? A lot. Arts can bring to the fore the anger, angst and pain of the masses. Contrary to what people think, it can find solutions. What is arts if it can't look at the present and think of the future? It is the glue that holds the harmonious balance of society. What is your take on Indian theatre today? It's being asphyxiated. There are no resources, no spaces where theatre can be performed. Yet it survives for it's the singular largest voluntary enterprise in social science where people put their own money, energy and organisational skills. It will never die. You have been associated with children's theatre. Where is it headed? There is a growing awareness in the NCERT and state-level educational bodies that arts can be a big driver of education and help build self-confidence. However, for children's theatre to truly grow, it must happen in vernacular languages as children learn the best and fastest in their mother tongue. How did you manage to do theatre in 13 languages? (Laughs) I am a nut case! Learning Punjabi, Haryanvi and Rajasthani was not very difficult and since I knew Sanskrit, other languages came easily too. Do we get to see anything in Punjabi anytime soon? Though the year 2015 is Bhisham Sahni's centenary year, I will be doing his play Muwaize in Punjabi before that. How has been the experience of acting in films like Taare Zameen Par and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi? It's a picnic, nothing much to learn. I know a whole lot about cinema, but I find it a good diversion that pays me well. How do you delineate between different mediums? The fundamentals are the same, but the science is different. While making films you have to be well versed with technology and update yourself with new techniques. Technology is changing at lightening speed. It has facilitated and democratised arts. What is your television programme Yeh Ilmo Adab Ke Ghavare about? It underlines the greatness of institutions, rich repositories of culture and education like the Khuda Baksh library. During the making of these series (yet to be aired), I have come to the heartening conclusion that Urdu is very much alive.
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Born in Madurai, Krishnan was an award-winning chef with Taj Hotels, Bangalore, and was shortlisted for an elite job in Switzerland. During a visit to his family before heading to Europe, he saw an old, hungry man eating his own human waste. Krishnan went to a nearby hotel and fed the old man idlis. "I had never seen a person eating so fast. His eyes filled with tears of happiness," he told his friends. Krishnan founded Akshaya Trust in 2003. Every day, he wakes up at 4 am, cooks a meal and then, along with his teammates, loads the food in a van and travels about 200 km, feeding the homeless and mentally challenged in Madurai. He also carries a comb, scissors and a razor to groom those he serves. Out of 10,000 nominations from over 100 countries, he was among the top 10 in the CNN heroes-2010 list. "Akshaya" in Sanskrit means imperishable. "It was chosen to signify that compassion should never decay. The spirit of helping others must prevail forever," he says. Also, in Hindu mythology, Goddess Annapoorna's Akshaya bowl fed the hungry endlessly, never depleting its resources. Many of the homeless seldom know their names or origins and can't beg or offer thanks. "They may be paranoid and hostile, but this only steadies my resolve to help," he says. Krishnan sleeps in Akshaya's modest kitchen with a few co-workers. He has invested all his savings in the trust and takes no salary. He subsists with the help of his parents. "They were pained because they had spent a lot on my education. I asked my mother to come and see what I was doing. My mother said, 'you feed all those people, and till the time I am alive, I will feed you.'" On how he started his venture, Krishnan says: "I started making food packets for the poor in 2002 by using my savings worth $2,500. When I saw it was helping the needy, it gave me great satisfaction. I plunged into it by forming the trust. We began cooking fresh wholesome vegetarian food and started feeding these people thrice a day. From 6,300 meals in 2002, we served 1.5 million meals in 2012 without missing a single day." The operational cost is about $327 a day. But donations cover only 22 days a month. The shortfall is subsidised with $88 that Krishnan receives as monthly rent from a house which his grandfather gave him. "Initially, people were hostile and paranoid, but now they appreciate our work and look forward to the meals," he says. He now hopes to build a dormitory to provide shelter to the homeless.
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spending years in the world’s most-troubled regions such as Iraq, where he was executing construction projects, Prof Hardarshan Singh Mejie is back to his roots to dedicate his life to the people in the Bassi Pathana area of Fatehgarh Sahib district. Prof Mejie, who taught in US universities and developed a good rapport with Saddam Hussein during his stay in Iraq, has been working to improve the lives of the marginalised sections of society in the rural areas. He is passionate about the empowerment of women, especially rural girls, and hockey. The Mehar Baba Charitable Trust set up by him spends Rs 1.80 crore every year on medicare, women empowerment, education and socio-care of about 2,09,000 people of 186 villages in Fatehgarh Sahib district. He also spends Rs 30 lakh on a hockey nursery he has set up at Bassi Pathana. He does not look towards any government agency for funds. He spends money from his own resources (he and his sons have been successful contractors and businessmen). “I have told my sons to look after the business as I will spend the rest of my life in community service,” he says. Teaming up Mejie has also engaged the School of Public Health, PGI; Division of Public Health, University of Utah, US; and the local community in his venture called the Bassi Pathana Community Collaborative Development Project to improve the lives of the people and strengthen rural communities. The mission started in 2009, when the trust started organising roads shows in villages to promote healthcare by inviting people to medical camps. With the support of PGI doctors, the trust organises a clinic at the Bassi Pathana Civil Hospital on every Saturday. Patients are given medicines free of cost. There is a monitoring system in place to keep track of patients’ treatment. So far, 435 patients have benefited. The trust has now started a project WaSH (water, sanitation and hygiene) at Bagh Sikander, Balara, Dahmeri, Fateghgarh Niuwan, Ferozepur, Jallowal, Lohar Majra Kalan, Majari and Salar Majra villages, with a population of 14,000. “As impurities in drinking water and insanitary conditions are the main sources of many diseases, we decided to start WaSH as a pilot project,” says Dr Puran Singh Jassi, former Director, Health Services, Punjab, and a trust member. Under this project, people are provided with water containers in which tap water is stored and disinfected with chlorine tablets that are given free of cost during the first month and later for Rs 25 (for 100 tablets). This model was adopted from Kolar in Karnataka where a Canadian NGO was working on a water project. Every year, a team of 15 experts in public health from the University of Utah visit these villages. The university, which is working in other countries also on similar projects, conducted a demographic and health census, tested the quality of potable water, assessed needs of people, determined baseline measures and identified the community’s health priorities. The trust has resolved to make these villages cataract free. Operations for cataract removal are being conducted regularly. Empowering women At the Mata Harnam Kaur Community Centre, the trust provides six-month vocational training free of cost for women in cutting, stitching, embroidery, rug-making and painting. About 1,200 women have been trained so far. “Our purpose is to make them self-reliant,” says Amandeep Kaur, who trains them. Some women are now running boutiques and earning good money. They are also trained in marketing what they learn at the centre. For boys and girls, who get admission in Dr Ambedkar Institute of Management Chandigarh, the trust provides free transport facility from Bassi Pathana to Chandigarh. There is also a free course in information and communication technology. Students are trained in computer fundamental courses. Sporty passion Besides it, the trust imparts training in English (software provided by the British Council) and hardware for assembling and repairing computers. The trust also runs a course in accountancy and is planning to set up satellite training centres in the district. “Hockey is very dear to my heart. I am 82 years old but I arrive at the hockey ground at 6 am from Chandigarh to Bassi Pathana every day. There are 90 boys and girls — between the ages of 4 and 20 — who are getting training from coaches. We spend Rs 3,000 per month per player. They are provided with summer and winter kits, nutrients and refreshment, besides healthcare. About 20 players from the nursery have been taken by the Sports Authority of India and other academies for higher training,” says
Mejie. |
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